"Alright then, let's get back to last year's incident, as this might be a viable point to ascertain the enmity between the involved parties and establish a potential motive in more detail. Could you describe what happened last year?" asked Tem.

"Phew, the usual. A group of Gryffindors surrounding Damian bullied me, cast spells on me, and tried to levitate me up into the trees again. I defended myself and attempted to get away, but the worst was their laughter. Whenever I slipped away, the laughter remained ringing in my ears.

"That one evening was especially bad. Usually, they refrain from following me for that long, but that time we got down towards Hogsmead. I ran for it at some point, blasted an opening into the Shrieking Shack, entered, and barricaded myself in there. In retrospect, it wasn't the best idea, but there I knew I wouldn't encounter anybody else and nobody cared about damages. So they thought the best they could do was to keep me there until I begged them to let me back out again." Jim remained emotionally unfazed while recounting the story.

Tem got the feeling as if he told a boring tale about working an utterly uneventful office job at the Ministry of Magic, and not a potentially harrowing situation. Either, this boy's personality was always like this, or he got over it impressively. Or something was considerably wrong with him. The latter seemed to fit the most, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"But you didn't?"

"No, not until Dale and some others came for me."

"Did you encounter anything in that house? Or did something happen there?"

"Not really. It's a creepy house, sure, but not much more. The rumours about it are rather exaggerated," said Jim, still with no emotion on his face.

"Various statements led me to believe that you didn't enjoy your stay there very much, and seemed frightened. Not to mention the threats you made afterwards," said Tem.

"Yeah, well. It's not a location you'd want to remain all night. But I got over it. I wanted them to leave me alone, that's all. And ignoring them didn't work," said Jim, pausing for a few seconds, before continuing, "Somebody told me to stand up to them."

"That seemed to have worked very well for you," said Tem, a bit absentmindedly, thinking through Jim's story. "I have to admit, you appear very collected about last year's events, and with no further threats by you towards Eleanor, I cannot establish a strong motive," said Tem, his shoulders dropping.

"What did you mean with Werewolves gnawing on your bones toward Eleanor," interjected Nathan suddenly. Nearly all heads turned towards the boy, surprised by this unexpected input into the conversation, except Tem's, who remained fixated on Jim. He was glad he did, as for the first time in this interaction he saw an emotional response by this disconcerting boy. Jim's nostrils had flared for a moment and his eyes widened as his head whipped around. As quickly as that happened, it disappeared again. Back was the seemingly bored boy.

"As I said before, I can't remember what I said. Must've been the first thing that came to my mind," replied Jim, as calm as before.

"It seems it was a decent decision for you," said Nathan, frowning.

Tem took over the reins again. "My investigation leads to mostly circumstantial possibilities and no concrete evidence, considering you left your compartment and could've gone after the stolen items. Would you be willing to cooperate with me in searching through your belongings, to make sure you don't have the contraband in your possession? This would allow for no doubt towards you being the thief," said Tem, sincerely.

"Alright. I don't mind. I've nothing to hide," said Jim, with an absentminded wave of his hand.

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"Jim, don't do it. That little twat has nothing against you. This is ridiculous," said Dale, agitatedly. "You're just trying to satiate your own curiosity at playing detective. Leave him alone," he added towards Tem.

"I assure you, it's not for my benefit, but for Mr Krane alone. I can present a better case for him, explaining his full extent of cooperation," said Tem, calmly.

"He is right, Dale. Leave it at rest. I don't mind. Here, my bag." Jim shoved a brown, worn shoulder bag over the floor towards Tem.

Tem knelt, opened the flap, and investigated the contents. "Some rolls of parchment, a novel," murmured Tem under his breath, so exclusively Nathan behind him could understand, "quill case, an... ornate hand mirror, surprising but ok, and a lunch box."

The detective got up again and passed the bag back to Jim, who took it with increased fervour now, his eyes narrowed. He changed back to his bored self after placing the bag underneath his seat again.

"Thank you. As expected, no sign of the stolen items. Could you also empty the pockets of your robes, please?"

With a slight shrug, Jim pulled out the inside of his pockets. A few sweets and wrappers fell out, but one small metallic ring that dropped to the floor caught Tem's attention. He bent over and picked it up to examine it in detail. "What have we got here? A small silver ring, potentially of some kind of chain, maybe from a necklace. Do you know what this is, Mr Krane?"

"No idea, could've been in my pocket for ages, I guess," said Jim, no indication of agitation or surprise in his face.

Tem pulled out a small plastic bag from his pocket. "I will have to keep that as evidence. The present witnesses account for my possession of this case item number one," said Tem, at which Jim only shrugged again.

"That's no evidence! That could be anything!" cried Dale. Tem got increasingly confused. He would've expected these reactions from Jim, who was the focal point of this investigation, and not another person completely outside scrutiny. Any emotional reaction would've been more reasonable than this complete lack of, well, anything. If Jim Krane was not the thief, his behaviour remained most peculiar. It wouldn’t surprise Tem if another case developed around him at some point.

"It's not necessarily convicting evidence, that's right. Nonetheless, important to catalogue. Thank you, once again for your cooperation. This will be all for now. I will continue my investigation and come back to you after concluding assessment of the evidence," said Tem.

"Good luck with your investigation, Mr Greengrass," said Jim Krane, turning his head back towards the window, staring out of it once again.

The boys left the compartment. Tem was still clutching his small evidence bag and after a few steps, he pulled it up and inspected it once again. Towards Nathan, he said, "I wonder where this belongs to?"

"I bet there is some kind of tracking spell that allows you to find the rest of this," said Nathan smiling.

"There are tons of spells I read about used by detectives in their books. Sadly, we can't do any of them," replied Tem. "I can think of five alone mentioned by Gilderoy Lockhart in his books that would come in handy right now." The boy's shoulders slumped down a notch.

"We don't need them. We can solve this without magic. I'm sure of it," said Nathan.

"Well, we have to. Let's see what we have so far. We have one suspect that is linked to both victims, who could've also had the opportunity and no waterproof alibi," said Tem, moving his index finger along his other fingers in sequence.

"Not to mention a viable motive, even if he seems amiable in having put to rest any enmities," added Nathan, which Tem counted off with his fingers in acknowledgement.

"Especially, considering how unnatural he acted the whole time. By the way, fine objection back there. Did you see his reaction?"

"Uhm, not sure. I was a bit caught up in the moment, with everybody suddenly looking at me," said Nathan, frowning a little.

"Don't worry. Nevertheless, he showed agitation for a moment. It might've been too tiny to register if he'd behaved like a normal person the whole time. With his robotic persona, it stood out like a sore thumb."

"Hmm, so both involved are holding something back about what has been said. Wonder why," said Nathan.

"Yeah, me too. The question remains if it pertains to these thefts at all? Could be totally unrelated for all we know. It might be worthwhile to ask Eleanor's friend, who reacted surprised at her comment about Jim's threat," surmised Tem.

"You think she will talk to us about it?"

"Worth a shot, I guess."

"This silver ring we found, do you think it might be a piece of the necklace? I mean, this would make Jim very suspicious, maybe convict him," said Nathan, slamming one fist into his other palm.

"Notably, when one considers the fact he was lying to us," said Tem.